Curing Live Rock: What is this stuff?

[rogersjw]

So this is my first SW tank and I've got about 50/50 LR and Base Rock curing in the tank right now. I left for a couple days and when I come back this is what I see (pictures attached)... Is the white fuzzy stuff normal? I've never noticed it in my freshwater so I thought I should check. It's been curing for about a week and a half now. PWC every few days.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Jimbo7]

I have absolutely no idea. But really curious to know who does.

EDIT: Couple minutes of research leads me to believe it is some sort of fungal mat. You should scrub it off and suck it out. Did the yellow stuff just appear too?
And is it growing on the LR, BR or both? It might just be nasty die off from something.

 

[rogersjw]

Its only on the BR as far as I can see... I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and rinsed it pretty darn well I thought, but Maybe I should do it again. Think I should pull it out of the curing tank and put it in a separate bucket? Thanks!

 

[rogersjw]

Oh and yellow stuff was on the rock. The LFS said if it comes back it is pretty sweet looking... maybe he's full of it and I should scrub it off?

 

[rogersjw]

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Smitty]

I'm not a salt water guy but you may get more responses in the ID forum instead of here since that is kinda what you are looking for...

 

[NativeKeeper]

Not sure about the white fuzzy stuff, but id say the yellow is a form of coraline algae, and should be left on the rock. It also comes in red, purple, pink, and maybe some other colors.

 

[mr_X]

i would not do water changes until the cycle is over. you are taking out much needed ammonia, thus disrupting the cycle. i would also leave the lights off until the cycle is over. ambient light from the room is enough to keep anything alive, and low enough to not trigger algae blooms.

 

[Jimbo7]

X, I will have to try and find this article for you, but I'm pretty sure it was by Sanjay Joshi about how water changes during a cycle actually doesn't slow it down at all. If I'm remembering, he said the levels in our cycles get way higher then natural conditions and taking some of that out can actually be beneficial.

 

[rogersjw]

Yeah its still there. Doesn't seem to be growing/spreading on to the LR, just staying on the baserock. I guess if I can't be sure it is beneficial I'll have to take them out and scrub them again?

 

[thincat]

I think you scrubed it enough. Leave it in there and let the cycle take it to it's end. It's some type of fungus and when the food supply goes down it will disappear. As far as water changes, the only reason to do a PWC is if you saw something on the LR that you wanted to save or you used straight ammonia and overdid it. Very few good bacteria live in the water column. It's on the hard surfaces that the bacteria grow.
PS: On a second look at your photos, it could be some form of sponge too.

 

[mr_X]

i'd like to see that article. natural conditions? would that be rotting live rock perhaps? or maybe a decomposing cocktail shrimp?


it seems to me that a bacteria colony that is brought on by the cycle, would be compromised by interrupting it. when you do water changes, you take out the food the bacteria is using to multiply. once the bacteria colony is established, i would then do a few water changes to remove the excess nutrients.
it's only the way people have been doing it for ever. it's worked that way this long.

 

[Idaho-Tank]

That "yellow stuff" looks a lot like Lichen to me. Was it only on the dry base rock? I had some on my base rock as well that I had to work hard to get off before using.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reddish-colored_lichen_on_volcanic_rock.jpg

 

[rogersjw]

I think I will have to agree with you. I've got two tanks with rock curing, one 50/50 BR LR and the other has pure LR which has finished curing after only 2.5 weeks (nice!) I'll be moving that tank to my permanent 55 gallon tomorrow and then I guess I will try to scrub off the lichen from that other rock and have it recur? Does anyone have any tips for me while scrubbing this or going about my next steps? I'm new to the SW world so I want to get it right the first time.

 

[Jimbo7]

i'd like to see that article. natural conditions? would that be rotting live rock perhaps? or maybe a decomposing cocktail shrimp?


it seems to me that a bacteria colony that is brought on by the cycle, would be compromised by interrupting it. when you do water changes, you take out the food the bacteria is using to multiply. once the bacteria colony is established, i would then do a few water changes to remove the excess nutrients.
it's only the way people have been doing it for ever. it's worked that way this long.

It's killing me I can't find it again. Basically the concentrations that we create using various methods are much higher then the oceans. Obviously there is a huge difference, but the amount of food that the bacteria needs to colonize is no where near effected as much as we think it is by doing simple small water changes. I never have, and had always thought the same thing, which is why I found the article interesting.